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Zimbabwe opposition says ZANU-PF youth on rampage

Reuters

Mon Jun 23,
2008 4:30am EDT

HARARE (Reuters) - Youth members of Zimbabwe's ruling
ZANU-PF party attacked citizens in Harare on Sunday after the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) announced it had pulled out of the June 27
presidential run-off.

"More than 2000 youth militia are currently on the
rampage in Mbare, central Harare, carrying out random attacks on innocent
citizens," the MDC said in a statement. "Casualty departments in Harare are
already receiving injuries from these attacks."

The party reiterated
its calls for urgent intervention by the regional and African
groups.

African Union says Zimbabwe "of grave concern"

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Africa's
top diplomat said on Monday that the violence election crisis in Zimbabwe
was a grave concern and the African Union had begun consultations on what
action to take.

Jean Ping, the chairman of the African Union Commission,
said in a statement that he was closely following events in Zimbabwe,
including the decision by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to pull out of the
second round ballot due on Friday.

"This development and the
increasing acts of violence in the run-up to the second round of the
presidential election are a matter of grave concern to the Commission of the
AU," it said.

The statement said Ping had initiated consultations with
the AU chairman, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, as well as the chairman
of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and its mediator --
South African President Thabo Mbeki, to see how best the AU could
help.

"The chairperson of the Commission stresses the need for all
Zimbabwean stakeholders to exercise restraint and reiterates his call for an
immediate end to all acts of violence," it said.

"He calls on
Zimbabwean parties to work together to overcome the challenges facing their
country in this critical phase in its history."

Tsvangirai withdrew from
the June 27 election saying his Movement for Democratic Change supporters
would be risking their lives it they cast votes against President Robert
Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980.

Zimbabwe election "no longer valid," EU says

Monsters and Critics

Jun
23, 2008, 7:58 GMT

Brussels - European Union officials on Monday
condemned the violence which has forced the opposition challenger out of
Zimbabwe's second-round presidential election, saying that the process was
no longer valid.

The presidency of the EU's council of member states,
currently run by Slovenia, said that it felt 'deep concern about the
systematic campaign of state-sponsored violence and intimidation that has
been spiralling throughout the whole electoral process and undermined the
credibility of this process.'

Following the decision by opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai to pull out, EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel
'expressed his belief that Zimbabwe's electoral process can no longer be
considered legitimate following continued extreme state-sponsored violence
and intimidation,' a statement from Michel's office said.

The MDC's
withdrawal 'is therefore clearly understandable and means this second round
of the presidential election can no longer be considered valid,' Michel
said.

On Sunday Tsvangirai said that his party, the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), was pulling out of the run-off election after his
supporters were attacked by backers of President Robert Mugabe at a rally in
Harare.

The EU's top foreign-policy official, Javier Solana, said that
the decision was 'understandable, given the unacceptable systematic campaign
of violence, obstruction and intimidation led by the Zimbabwean
authorities.'

'In these conditions, the elections have become a travesty
of democracy. They are certainly not worthy of the African continent of
today,' Solana said in a statement.

African Union leaders are set to
meet in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt on June 30, and EU leaders called on the
body, with which they are trying to forge closer ties, to
intervene.

'We now expect that the African leaders ... will condemn in
the strongest terms the current situation in Zimbabwe and will do their
utmost to resolve this crisis for the sake of the Zimbabwean people and of
democracy in Africa,' Michel said.

Solana praised the African bloc's
leaders 'for their efforts in seeking to persuade the Zimbabwean leadership
to see reason.'

Leaders finally turn their backs on Bob

Hypocrisy is a
tribute vice pays to virtue, said the 19th-century French aristocrat Duc de
la Rochefoucauld.

His observation may be relevant to a significant
new phenomenon - the growing criticism of President Robert Mugabe by other
African governments.

They, and particularly the governments of the
Southern African Development Community (SADC), have been strongly criticised
for supporting Mugabe or at best turning a blind eye to his depravities. But
that is changing, as the following events show:

a.. In
April, southern African and other nearby governments refused to off-load a
shipment of Chinese arms for Zimbabwe.

a.. At the SADC summit
in Lusaka in the same month, leaders like Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa
were sharply critical of Mugabe.a..

a.. Also in June, Botswana's new
president, Ian Khama, called in the Zimbabwean ambassador to protest against
Mugabe's violent and repressive election tactics.

a.. Last
week, Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Member, speaking on behalf of the
SADC, said: "There is every sign that these elections will never be free nor
fair. We have told the government of Zimbabwe to stop the
violence."

a.. Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetang'ula
suggested that Mugabe's actions were "an affront to the evolving democratic
culture in Africa and unacceptable to all people in
Africa".

a.. Rwandan President Paul Kagame accused Mugabe of
turning the election into a farce and demanded the SADC do
something.

a.. Swazi government spokesperson Percy Simelane was
quoted as saying free and fair elections were unlikely "if even the
president himself is inciting violence".

a.. And, perhaps
most significant, even Mugabe's old ally, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos
of Angola, urged him to "observe the spirit of tolerance and respect for
difference and cease all forms of intimidation and political
violence".

Why is Africa at last turning on Mugabe? About three
years ago, I asked then-Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa why he continued
to support Mugabe when he himself was striving for democracy and good
governance.

"Because we have completed the process of
decolonisation while Zimbabwe has not," he replied, referring to Mugabe's
continuing seizure of white-owned farms.

Whatever one may think
of that answer, the white farmers have virtually all gone and it is plain
for all to see that Mugabe has turned on his black compatriots.

Africa's change of heart can also be ascribed to the rise of a generation of
regional and continental leaders with little, if any, nostalgia for the
liberation struggle Mugabe still brandishes as his raison
d'etra.

Mkapa has given way to the unsympathetic Jakaya
Kikwete; Festus Mogae to the more aggressive Khama; in Kenya, Odinga,
himself a victim of election rigging and a close ally of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), has become prime minister, and so on.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai deserves some of the credit for having
traversed the region after the first round of elections on March 29 to drum
up support.

Overall, one senses that the region and Africa are
evolving politically and economically and feel that this octogenarian, who
does not know his time has passed, is dragging them down.

Mugabe is no doubt fuming "hypocrites" at some of his critics - like Dos
Santos and Swaziland's King Mswati III - who do not seem much more
democratic than he is. Even they, though, are justified in feeling disgusted
at the violence being orchestrated by Mugabe.

If they are being
hypocritical, it may be because they themselves are holding elections later
this year, and probably want to start looking as democratic as
possible.

That's not a bad thing. They will be reminded of their
words. And, as Rochefoucauld implied, when the democratic laggards feel they
have to make democratic noises, it suggests at least that democracy is
becoming fashionable in the region.

That's
progress.

This article was originally published on page 11 of
Cape Times on June 23, 2008

'We will romp to victory'

IOL

June 23 2008 at
08:14AM

Zimbabwe's ruling party has dismissed the opposition's
withdrawal from presidential elections as a "nullity", saying the run-off
polls will go ahead on Friday, the state-owned The Herald reported on
Monday.

"Zanu-PF is not treating the threats seriously; it is a
nullity. We are proceeding with our campaign to romp to victory on Friday,"
said Patrick Chinamasa, the chairman of the Zanu-PF media
sub-committee.

"This is the 11th time that [opposition leader
Morgan] Tsvangirai has threatened to withdraw from the presidential run-off
and on each occasion I have challenged him to put it in writing as required
by the law," he told reporters in Harare on Sunday evening.

The
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said preparations for the presidential
election run-off scheduled to take place on Friday would go ahead because
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had not formally
withdrawn yet.

Chinamasa said Tsvangirai was using political
violence as an excuse while the truth was that the majority of violent cases
had been instigated by the MDC.

"Tsvangirai went into the
election thinking that it was a sprint and was not prepared for a marathon
and wants to avoid defeat. He spent his time globe-trotting and gallivanting
in Europe and left MDC-T supporters without leadership.

"Zanu-PF exploited the opportunity and campaigned vigorously for victory and
when he returned, he realised that the tables had turned against him. His
party was in disarray, leading to the decision to withdraw from
participating in the run-off," said Chinamasa.

He said the
announcement on Sunday that the MDC would not take part in the elections was
a calculated move to coincide with a UN Security Council meeting this week,
which will be chaired by the United States.

Tsvangirai pulled out
of the elections, saying it was too dangerous for opposition supporters.
More than 70 MDC members have been killed since the first round of
parliamentary and presidential elections, won by Tsvangirai, on March
29.

But Tsvangirai did not win an absolute majority over President
Robert Mugabe and a second round of elections was scheduled to take place on
Friday. - Sapa

Zimbabwe govt urges Tsvangirai not to
withdraw

Channel News Asia

Posted: 23 June 2008 1619 hrs

JOHANNESBURG: A Zimbabwe
government spokesman on Monday urged opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai not
to withdraw from a presidential run-off, saying this would "not be good" for
the people or the country.

"It would be very regrettable if Tsvangirai
indeed decides to pull out of this election," Deputy Information Minister
Bright Matonga said on SABC radio.

"I will urge him or his party to
think twice so that they take part in this democratic process."

"It
(the withdrawal) will not be good for the people of Zimbabwe and for this
country," he said, adding that the government had taken action to curtail
violence across the country.

Tsvangirai said rising violence had made a
fair vote impossible when announcing his decision to withdraw on
Sunday.

President Robert Mugabe has blamed the opposition for the
violence, but the UN has said his supporters were responsible for the bulk
of it.

The opposition says more than 80 of its supporters have been
killed and thousands injured in a campaign of
intimidation.

Zimbabwe's ruling party said in state media on Monday that
Tsvangirai's decision to withdraw may be a ruse, and urged its supporters to
continue campaigning.

"ZANU-PF is not treating the threats
seriously," Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa was quoted as saying by
state-run newspaper The Herald.

"It is a nullity. We are proceeding with
our campaign to romp to victory on Friday."

Tsvangirai hasn't 'closed door completely'

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai has "not closed the door completely" on a negotiated settlement
in the strife-torn country, South Africa's presidential spokesperson said on
Monday.

"We will continue to work together to find a solution to
the political challenges in Zimbabwe," said President Thabo Mbeki's
spokesperson, Mukoni Ratshitanga.

"We've also noted that Mr
Tsvangirai himself says he is not closing the door completely on the
negotiations and we are very, very encouraged by that
statement."

Mbeki travelled to Zimbabwe last week to meet with
long-time president Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai in reported attempts to
call off the elections and negotiate a government of national
unity.

Tsvangirai announced on Sunday that he was pulling out of a
presidential election run-off scheduled for Friday, describing it as a
"violent illegitimate sham of an election process".

South
Africa's Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi and
Mbeki's legal advisor Mojanku Gumbi left for Harare on Friday
evening.

"They are part of the facilitation team. They are
there in the context of the ongoing facilitation work," said
Ratshitanga.

Asked if they had met with Tsvangirai, he replied:
"What we've been saying is that they will meet with all parties... In the
end, there's got to be some sort of solution and we think all of us must
work together to find that solution."

More than 70 MDC members
have been killed since the first round of parliamentary and presidential
elections, won by Tsvangirai, on March 29.

But Tsvangirai did not
win an absolute majority and a second round of elections was scheduled to
take place on Friday. - Sapa

Britain urges tough steps to end Zimbabwe "tragedy"

LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - Britain urged the
international community on Monday to agree tough measures against President
Robert Mugabe's government to bring Zimbabwe's "tragedy" to an
end.

Britain's Africa Minister Mark Malloch-Brown said pressure from
fellow African leaders on Mugabe was now vital after Zimbabwe's main
opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of a June 27 presidential
vote.

"They now have got to come out decisively and I think there's a
hope they will," Malloch-Brown told BBC radio.

"In the AU (African
Union), in the European Union and at the U.N., the world has to agree on
very tough measures to bring this tragedy to an end as quickly as
possible."

Tsvangirai withdrew from the election on Sunday, saying his
Movement for Democratic Change supporters would be risking their lives it
they cast their votes.

Tsvangirai said there was a state-sponsored
plot to keep Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980,
in power. He accused Mugabe's supporters of genocide.

Malloch-Brown
noted growing condemnation from African countries of Zimbabwe's political
crisis and the violence which the opposition says has left 86 people dead
and displaced 200,000.

"One by one the other neighbours of Zimbabwe have
said this has got to stop," he told Sky News.

He also said there were
many sanctions which could be imposed by the international community to step
up pressure.

"There is a whole range of things that can be done which can
bring this regime to heel in the sense of requiring it to bend to the will
of the international community and allow political change," he
said.

Many key figures in Mugabe's regime had global bank accounts and
asset networks that could be choked off," he added.

"All of those
kinds of patterns of networks of assets and travel are under threat. None of
these individuals, if they continue like this, have a prospect of being able
to leave Zimbabwe without the risk of some international arrest warrant
leading to their imprisonment somewhere."

Asked whether South African
President Thabo Mbeki -- who has been leading efforts to negotiate a
solution between Mugabe and Tsvangirai -- was doing enough, Malloch Brown
said:

"I don't think President Thabo Mbeki's approach is one that is at
this point shared by all African leaders." (Reporting by Kate Kelland.
Editing by Matthew Tostevin)

EU threatens to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe

New Europe

23 June
2008 - Issue : 787

European Union leaders issued a new threat to
impose sanctions on Zimbabwe as the country readied to hold a June 27 runoff
presidential election marred by widespread violations, violence, murder, and
jailing opposition leaders. "The European Council (of ministers) reiterates
its readiness to take additional measures against those responsible for
violence," EU heads of government and state said in a joint statement after
a meeting in Brussels. Britain has been heading calls for the EU to get
tough on the regime of Robert Mugabe, who is accused of violating human
rights and of ordering the harassment of opposition supporters. The leaders
also "regretted" Zimbabwe's rejection of its offer to provide election
monitors and called on the Southern Africa Development Community and the
African Union to "deploy a significant number of election monitors as soon
as possible and to ensure their continued presence until the electoral
process is completed and results officially declared." The threat came as
Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change candidate Morgan
Tsvangirai was said to be considering pulling out of the June 27 runoff
because of the escalating violence against his supporters by followers of
President Mugabe. The European Union already has a travel ban on Mugabe and
his closest aides, although that was lifted in December, 2007, to allow him
to come to an EUAfrica Summit in Lisbon, which was boycotted by British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown. "The European Council remains deeply concerned
by the situation in Zimbabwe and reiterates the need for the upcoming second
round of presidential elections on June 27 to be held in a peaceful, free
and fair environment in accordance with international norms and standards,"
EU leaders said.

Tsvangirai's withdrawal irrelevant-delay has
nullified run-off

The Zimbabwean

Monday, 23 June 2008 08:51Two independent
legal opinions commissioned by the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC)
support a conclusion that delay and the absence of a lawful run-off means
the candidate who obtained the greatest number of votes in the election of
29 March 2008 has been duly elected as President and must be declared as
such.

Read together, the opinions provided by David Unterhalter SC
and Wim Trengove SC and Max du Plessis on different aspects of Zimbabwean
electoral law argue that Zimbabwe's Electoral Act provides both a
majoritarian principle and a residual principle for determining the outcome
of a Presidential election.

The majoritarian principle is
predicated upon the requirement that a second election takes place within
the 21 day period after the first election, which would have been April
2008. Only two candidates participate in this second election - those with
the highest and next highest number of votes from the first round - and the
candidate with the greater number of votes shall be declared the duly
elected President, as set out in item 3 (1)(a) of the Second Schedule of the
Electoral Act.

However item 3 of the Second Schedule also provides
for a residual principle: where no second election is held or can be held
with the requisite 21 day period, and there were two or more candidates for
President, and no candidate received a majority of the total number of valid
votes cast, item 3(1)(b) provides that the candidate with the greatest
number of votes, and not the majority of the total number of votes, shall be
the duly elected President.

This argument is set out in greater
detail in an opinion titled: The Procedures Governing the Determination and
Declaration of the President in the Event of an Unlawful Runoff. SALC has
made the opinion publicly available at www.southernafricalitigationcentre.org

A second opinion commissioned by SALC addresses the issue of whether the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is authorised to extend the runoff
period beyond the statutorily mandated 21 day period and consequently
whether the current runoff, scheduled for 27 June 2008, is
lawful.

It is argued that ZEC was not constitutionally authorised
to extend the run-off: that the regulatory powers it invoked in order to
extend the run-off constitute an impermissible and unconstitutional
delegation on the part of Parliament, that it violates the separation of
powers principle and that insufficient guidelines were given to limit such
delegation.

It follows that no lawful run-off can take place if not
held within the 21 day period: that ZEC's purported extension was
unconstitutional and unlawful. This opinion is also available from SALC at
www.southernafricalitigationcentre.org

If there can be no lawful run-off now, then as set out in the first opinion,
the residual principle applies and the Chief Elections Officer is required
to declare the candidate with the greatest number of votes the duly elected
President. Even assuming that the run-off could be extended beyond the 21
day period, but that the run-off could not occur because violence and
intimidation made it impossible that a free and fair election could be held,
then the residual principle would still apply and the candidate with the
greatest number of votes must be declared duly elected
President.

SALC Director, Nicole Fritz said: "These
opinions assume critical importance in light of recent developments. They
provide clarity in what seems an increasingly uncertain situation. And the
give the lie to any claim by Mugabe that he is the lawfully elected
President."

Zimbabwe Minister Says US "Fuels Violence" -
Report

nasdaq

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AFP)--Zimbabwe's information
minister accused the U.S. in state media Monday of "putting millions of
dollars to fuel violence," adding that U.S. ambassador to Harare James McGee
had "failed to fulfill his duties."

"America is putting millions of
dollars to fuel violence and part of this money will be to provide transport
costs and paramilitary training for millions of Zimbabweans outside the
country when the British stooge, Tsvangirai, loses the presidential run-off
as he surely will," Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said in the state-run Herald
newspaper.

Chitungwiza terror

The Zimbabwean

Monday, 23 June 2008
07:53By Chief Reporter

CHITUNGWIZA - By day, the narrow
streets between Chitungwiza's ramshackle houses are filled with children
playing.

After dark, they are roamed by heavily armed soldiers, who
have beaten up hundreds of people in a brutal campaign against a Zimbabwean
town that dared to oppose President Robert Mugabe in the March 29 poll.While
the countryside has been particularly singled out for repression since
handing Mugabe and his Zanu-PF his first electoral defeat since independence
in 1980, the poorest people in the dormitory town are now suffering the
most.

Last Thursday morning, four victims of this brutal campaign
were found, brutally murdered after being abducted by gun-toting security
agents.The four, Yuana Jenti, Archford Chipiyo, Ngoni Knight and another who
has only been identified as Tyson - all of them known MDC activists - were
found dead in the early hours of Thursday morning with grisly body injuries
revealing that they were viciously tortured until they died.

Inside the Chipiyo home in Unit F on Saturday, women sang softly at a
funeral wake, while stunned men sat around a bon fire, unable to cope with
the shocking deaths.There was a sombre mood at the Chipiyos as they mourned
their murdered son, Archford, a young MDC activist who was the son of Ward
19 MDC councilor Philemon Chipiyo.Mourners said they were struggling to come
to terms with the shocking politically-motivated murder.

Two
women, with tears in their eyes, were wailing violently while elder women
were struggling to console them.In St Mary's, the smouldering petrol-bombed
home of the newly elected MDC MP in the area, Marvelous Khumalo, stood as a
grim reminder of the price of dissent. The heavily armed troops and Zanu-PF
militia are unleashing a reign of terror in this populous suburb of almost
800 000 people, populated mainly by jobless youths who live in overcrowded
shacks.

During the March 29 general poll, they showed their
discontent with Mugabe by electing candidates from the MDC in the three
local constituencies.Soldiers who arrive in convoys of armoured vehicles are
exacting a heavy price for this defiance in preparation for a presidential
run off vote that had been due on Friday but which MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai has said he would boycott.

One young resident, Mike,
was dancing in the Mbizi nightclub when the doors were flung open at
midnight and 20 soldiers wearing camouflage uniforms and red berets burst
in, carrying assault rifles. They ordered everyone to lie on the floor and
then set upon them with clubs, whips and sticks.

Mike, 22,
said: "They shouted, 'We are beating you because you voted MDC!' They poured
beer over us while we were on the floor. Then they started beating us. They
beat us everywhere: on the back, the legs, the neck."After systematically
assaulting all the patrons for about half an hour, the soldiers ordered them
to leave the club and, for good measure, kicked and punched them as they
fled. Mike still walks with a limp and is badly bruised more than a week
after the attack.

He was too afraid to give his real name. He said:
"I still think they might come for me. It will take time for me to recover."
Soldiers have raided at least six bars and nightclubs during the past three
days. A pattern has emerged. They arrive in armoured cars, attack everyone
in sight and tell their victims that they are being punished for backing the
MDC.

They have a new slogan 'WW', which The Zimbabwean was told
means 'win or war.' If Mugabe loses there will be war, the Zanu-PF youth
militia have told the hapless residents. He has now been handed an
uncontested victory by Tsvangirai that is set to make his regime illegal and
totally illegitimate.

The Mugabe government sees Chitungwiza ,
Zimbabwe 's third-largest town, 25 kms south of the capital city Harare , as
a security problem. All but a handful of its young men are jobless and
fiercely pro-MDC.The residents of Chitungwiza say the army action is
punishment for an area that backs the MDC, and shows that Mugabe was afraid
of losing the June 27 poll, which he has now won by default.

Soldiers are increasingly seen as the uniformed wing of the defeated Zanu
(PF) party, and the military action in the townships indicated that the army
was at the disposal of the drive to guarantee Mugabe's re-election.

Poll Results

The Zimbabwean

Monday, 23 June 2008
09:10HARARE -Morgan Tsvangirai would have won Friday's election by a
landslide if the poll had gone ahead, according to a reputable
pollster.

Sixty three percent of voters would have voted for
Tsvangirai, giving him an undisputed win. In 1980 Zanu (PF) won the first
democratic election in the new Zimbabwe by 57% - which was acclaimed
internationally as a landslide.

The countrywide poll, carried
out in the last week by a leading independent researcher who cannot be named
for security reasons, found that the 63% of respondents intending to vote
for Tsvangirai was remarkable consistent with assessments of the true
support for the MDC at the last election.

The parameters of the
poll were necessarily circumscribed by the prevailing security climate but
the low number of those refusing to comment or not intending to vote is
striking.Political analysts said the figures "make
sense".

A total of 2758 individuals were polled, of whom only
104 (0.4%) said they would not comment or vote. 974 (63%) said they would
vote for Tsvangirai. The poor showing by Mugabe, 37%, is despite the
widespread reign of terror and the denial of food aid to MDC supporters by
the state over the past two months, coupled with the extensive Zanu (PF)
patronage system which has seen the economy destroyed through corruption and
wholesale theft of state resources by Zanu fatcats.The votes would
have been fairly divided between the different provinces, with Tsvangirai
having the most support in Harare and the least in Mashonaland East.
Support for Mugabe was highest in Mashonaland and lowest on
Matebeleland.

War in South Africa if Mugabe remains

We fear war in JohannesburgZimbabweans will rush
into Johannesburg in large numbersSouth Africa is faced with an on
going migration crisis, with over 3 million immigrants from Zimbabwe alone.
This crisis is a result of hardships faced by Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe. This
crisis has led to frustrations among the South African poor who have been
forced to compete with the immigrant populations for basic resources and
employment. In the recent past we have seen the ugly face of xenophobia,
resulting in many deaths, massive displacement of the immigrant population
and a large reverse migration of immigrants back into their poverty and war
stricken countries. The South African police were unable to deal with the
violence and the army had to be called in.

Zimbabwe's June 27th
runoff elections were the only hope of a peaceful presidential succession.
The numbers of Zimbabweans migrating into South Africa had slowed down in
the hope of a new president. There had been a reverse migration by a number
of Zimbabweans who had hoped to see the economy improve under new
leadership. In light of the withdrawal of Morgan Tsvangirai from the
elections, we appeal to Thabo Mbeki to intervene immediately and to plan the
return of the opposition leader into the presidential race. It is clear that
violence has made free and fair elections impossible.

We fear
that Zimbabweans will flood into South Africa, like never before, resulting
in further frustrations among the poor South Africans. The numbers we can
expect, if the Zimbabwean people have no chance of changing their president,
will result in massive bloodshed. It is the worst possible time for a
drastic increase in migration into South Africa, it will be war.

If
we don't intervene we will pay for our lack of intervention on our own soil
by shooting South Africans who fight the consequences of Mbeki's tolerance
of Mugabe. It would be better to fight a war in Zimbabwe.

Bill Watch 25 of 21st June 2008 [Electoral Regulations Amended again]

· Correcting
discrepancies between the regulations and new form V23A [dealing with the
verification and collation of polling station returns and aggregation of postal
ballots at ward centres] and new form V23B [dealing with constituency
verification and collation]

· Stating that
reasonable notice will be given to candidates/election agents of when
verification and collation proceedings at ward and constituency level will take
place, so that they can be present and countersign the completed return
forms

· Increasing the
Zimbabwe dollar prices of voters rolls to $20 billion for a printed or
electronic constituency roll or electronic ward roll, and $5 billion for a
printed ward roll

· Correcting an
error in new form V.23B [constituency return form] by substituting "constituency
elections officer" for "ward elections officer"

· Substituting a new
form V.24 [dealing with accounting for and counting of postal ballots at the
ward collation centre] containing more detailed provision for recording of
postal ballot papers issued, received and counted, and space for
countersignature of the completed form by election agents and observers present
at the proceedings

· Providing for an
increased presence of election agents in and near polling stations, at
the opening of postal ballot boxes and at constituency centres. The new figures
are: a maximum of 2 agents per candidate in a polling station at any one time
plus another two per candidate within 300 metres of the polling station [this
also applies to counting of votes]; maximum of 2 agents per candidate at the
opening of the postal ballot box; and a maximum of 4 agents per candidate at the
constituency centre

Declaration Against Violence by National Multi-Party Liaison
Committee

ZEC's
National Multi-Party Liaison Committee for the Presidential Run-off Election has
issued a Declaration in which the both the MDC and ZANU-PF commit themselves,
inter alia, to refrain from acts of violence and the use of language that is
intimidatory or may provoke violence. The Declaration was signed on 20 June by
M. Komichi and D. Chirunda representing MDC-T and P. Chinamasa and A.M. Chirisa
representing ZANU-PF, and also by Mrs Sarah Kachingwe, as chairperson of this
Committee. [Electronic
version of Declaration available on request.]

The
latest figures from the Ministry of Justice for local observers cleared for
accreditation - 2742. These still have to go through the process of ZEC
accreditation. The Zimbabwe Election Support Network [ZESN], an umbrella
body for 38 civic organisations, has been informed by the M. of J. that it may
have only 500 observers, although ZESN had applied for approval of over 23 000.
[For the 29th March poll ZESN had 8 800 observers.] The reason given for the
Ministry's decision to accredit so few local observers was that the presence of
observers "disrupts the smooth flow of voting". The Electoral Regulations
obviously did not consider that observers would disrupt the elections, as they
permit a maximum of 3 observers from each observer group to be in or near
a polling station at any one time. As there are 9 231 polling stations, this
would mean a possible 27 000 from one observer group alone. A considerable
number of observer groups have applied, which under the regulations would bring
the figures of observers envisaged to considerably more than 27
000.

With such
a small number of local observers, only a limited number of polling stations
will be covered - and observers should be there from sealing of ballot boxed
before polling starts and until the posting of the vote
counts.

Location of Ward Collation Centres

ZEC has
published advertisements in the press listing the locations of ward collation
centres countrywide. These are the centres where (1) postal ballot boxes will
be sealed on 22nd June in readiness for the receipt of postal ballot papers; and
(2) polling station returns will be collated after the poll on 27th June and the
postal votes verified and counted before being added to the results reflected on
the polling station returns.

Media
coverage

Advertisements: Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings [ZBH] [the only
public broadcaster in Zimbabwe] has stated that it will not broadcast campaign
advertisements submitted by the MDC "because they contain inappropriate language
and information". The MDC has said it will appeal to ZEC against the ZBH
decision. As ZBH has been broadcasting campaign advertisements from ZANU-PF, it
is obliged by section 16G of the ZEC Act to offer the MDC the same terms and
conditions of publication, without discrimination, subject to ZBH's right to
reject advertisements that would render ZBH liable to criminal prosecution or
other legal proceedings.

Programmes and news: ZBH's coverage of the run-up to the
election has come under fire from the Fact Finding Mission of African Media
Organisations that visited Zimbabwe from 8th to 13th June. In a statement
dated 13th June setting out its findings, the mission reported that a simple
monitoring of the content of the state owned newspapers and broadcast news
bulletins over the period of the visit had shown biased reporting embedded in
hate language. Full statement available fromwww.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/94549/ or fromveritas@mango.zw.

Schools closure next week

The
Ministry of Education has announced that schools will close for the five days
Monday 23 to Friday 27 June because "most of the schools will be used as polling
stations and the majority of teachers will be involved in this
exercise".

New Information from ZEC

Postal
ballots: The deadline for applications for postal votes has now expired.
About 14 000 applications have been processed so far. The processing of the
remaining applications continues.

Accreditation of journalists: 155 local and foreign journalists
have been accredited as at 18th June. Accreditation will continue until polling
day.

Training of election officials: ZEC has finished training
constituency election officers and provincial logistic committees. The
constituency election officers will in turn train polling officers before their
deployment to their polling stations. Deployment will occur on 23rd June, four
days before the run-off date.

Ballot
papers and other election material: Election material - including inks,
ballot papers and ballot boxes - is ready and will be dispatched to provinces
next week.

Presidential Election and By-Election
Calendar

2nd
June - 27th June: Accreditation of international and local observers and
journalists by ZEC at the Harare and Bulawayo Polytechnics. International
observers who observed the last election do not need a new invitation from the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs [new observers do] but still need to be accredited.
Local observers need to apply for an invitation from the Minister of Justice
before seeking accreditation.

4th
June onwards: Checking of applications for postal votes by the Chief
Elections Officer. Election agents and observers are invited to witness this
process.

22nd
June: Sealing of Postal Ballot Boxes This will be done at ward collation
centres, and election agents and observers are entitled to be present.
Envelopes containing postal votes will be placed unopened in these boxes and
will not be opened until after polling on the 27th June.

27th
June: Polling Day for Presidential Run-off Election and
By-Elections

The election period [and the duties and functions of observers]
continues until the announcement of the results

Veritas makes
every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal
responsibility for information supplied.